


What Comes After

by Malind



Series: Beginnings [2]
Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020), Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: Angst, Developing Friendships, Falling In Love, M/M, Shameless Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:21:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23656033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malind/pseuds/Malind
Summary: Cloud gets a new courier job from an unknown client.  Extremely vague Remake spoilers for Chapter 9.
Relationships: Andrea Rhodea/Cloud Strife
Series: Beginnings [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1703242
Comments: 13
Kudos: 174





	1. Chapter 1

“Cloud,” Tifa called out from upstairs as Cloud opened the front door, “There’s a job for you on the table.”

Cloud put his backpack down and walked over the tall, rickety table pushed up against the hallway that led to the kitchen in the back of the house. He picked up the scrap of paper and read the hastily written words. It took him a few seconds to decipher them. Tifa didn’t have the best handwriting in the world when she was in a hurry. Judging by the address, the job was way across town, in the rich district.

“There’s no name,” Cloud called back.

“Yeah, he didn’t even give me a chance to ask. Just gave me his address and hung up. But hey, it’s a job, right?”

“Did he say what I’m delivering?”

“Ah, no.”

Cloud sighed, staring at the address. It wasn’t one he could remember working for before, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. “Next time, ask for their name first, or I’m not doing it. I don’t want a repeat of last time.” 

Last time, he’d wound up with an armful of drugs before he’d shoved them right back. Delivering some rich asshole’s stash wasn’t anywhere in his job description. And people willing to give their names were less likely to be tasking him with something unscrupulous. 

“Yeah, sorry. I’ll try. Can you hurry it up though? Denzel and Marlene are getting out of school in a few hours, and I have an appointment. I don’t want them walking home alone again.”

“Yeah.” With that, Cloud turned around, grabbed his backpack on the way to the door and emptied it of the books he’d picked up for the two kids, and left again for the fourth time that day. The sun was blazing overhead, renewing his sweat, when he pulled his motorcycle out of the garage and sped down the road. With school in session, he could travel with relative assurance he wasn’t about to run over some wayward kid.

It’d been less than a year since Meteor had torn apart Midgar. It showed, everywhere. But houses were slowly being built or rebuilt by the people who’d survived with the junk they could salvage. People didn’t have much choice but to become carpenters and builders if they wanted a place to keep warm and dry. There was just too much need for housing. The rest were trying their damnedest to hunt, fish, and grow food. The land was still barren though after years upon years of Midgar’s reactors sucking the life out of the planet, literally. Food and clean water were hard to come by. It was a job in itself and the things donated from other towns and cities only went so far. He was honestly surprised more people hadn’t abandoned the place.

Around thirty minutes later, he was entering the places where people could afford to pay other people to do their dirty work, people like Cloud. And a few minutes after that, he’d arrived at his destination, or so his phone told him. He checked the address again and it seemed to match up with the number on the house.

It was a large, extravagant house, definitely one of the largest in Edge. That fact instantly weighed Cloud down. There was no way this person wanted anything good from him. People like this had employees to do whatever their little hearts desired. They didn’t need some random stranger to handle their affairs.

But, he was here. He figured he might as well see what they wanted. 

And he could always walk away if the job was no good. He wasn’t so desperate for money that he’d take any job thrown at him. The close-knit thing he had at home, a something that could have called a family, was doing well enough. They weren’t starving or anything, and they’d make due however this turned out.

Cloud parked his bike on the side of the street, shouldered one of the empty backpacks he’d attached to the side of it, and walked up the long walkway. The doorbell rang with a chime he swore he’d heard before but he couldn’t place it off hand. 

A short time later, a woman opened the door and smiled at him. “Come inside,” she said with a sweep of her hand. She was wearing a maid’s outfit, a bit of a revealing one at that. Its cut was high on her thighs and poofed up with layers of fabric and lace. The bodice wasn’t much better. Typical.

With an inner sigh, Cloud looked away, towards the room her hand had swept to, and walked inside. 

She followed behind and, when they entered the large, open room that spilled in light through its floor to ceiling windows, she said, “Please, have a seat. He’ll be with you shortly.”

By the time he turned around, the obvious question on his lips--namely, who was this ‘he’--she was already walking away. He blew out some air but didn’t sit down. He wasn’t going to stay long enough to bother. If this rich asshole couldn’t be bothered to pull himself away from whatever was keeping him occupied, Cloud would just leave. He’d give him a few minutes though.

...And those minutes passed. Cloud only let himself pace a couple of times before he started for the foyer. His heavy boots pounded on the beautiful hardwood floor. When he turned the corner though, he came to a deadstop.

There _he_ stood. For a moment, Cloud didn’t believe he was seeing him. But he was. Right? With his track record, he couldn’t always be sure what he was seeing was real. It didn’t help that Andrea Rhodea was the last person he’d expected to see in front of him.

The man had changed. His hair was longer, curling a bit over his ears and framing his angular face. He wore a loose shirt and pants, simple dark gray linen if Cloud was to guess, not the flamboyant showpieces he’d been wearing over a year before. His stubble was now full-faced, instead of just a goatee.

Seeing him after so long… It shook him hard, speeding up his heart and, in turn, his breathing.

This was the first and last person Cloud had ever kissed. The first and last he’d ever let touch him in such a way. And, until that moment, he’d completely forgotten what it’d felt like because he’d forced himself to forget. Because he hadn’t had the time nor the mental capacity to right it in his mind. He’d forgotten it because it was just easier to. It’d helped that he’d never had a dire need to screw everything in his path, unlike some people. So, while it hadn’t been an easy task at first, everything that had happened around him aftwerward had helped him move on from something that was never supposed to happen in the first place.

“Cloud…” was all Andrea said, his voice deep, naturally purring.

Hearing his name on this man’s lips again... It sent a shot of what Cloud didn’t want to call pleasure right to his groin. Cloud gritted his teeth. Hard. This sure as fuck wasn’t why he’d come here. He’d come for a job. Not to…

He didn’t even want to think about it.

Andrea walked up to him, past him, saying, “Come, have a seat,” as if this was just business. And it was. It really was. At least it should have been.

Cloud turned around but didn’t follow after. He just stared at the man as Andrea sat down, crossing a leg so that the calf rested on his knee, and rested his hands on that leg. And then he looked at Cloud and the moment lengthened.

“Not going to sit then?”

“I’m just here for the job,” Cloud said, forcing his words to be bland, indifferent. He had no intention of letting Andrea know how much his presence affected him. He didn’t even want to know it himself.

Andrea stood back up. “Well, would you like a drink then?”

“Just tell me what the job is, and I’ll go.”

The man stared at him for a moment but then walked away towards the bar, opened the fridge, and pulled out a couple of bottles of beer with labels Cloud didn’t recognize. He never really stepped beyond his usual brand, unless he didn’t have a choice. Then Andrea walked back over to him, holding a bottle out.

“I’m really not here--”

“I don’t have a job for you. But I’ll pay you for your time, if it’ll get you to sit down and drink with me.”

Cloud huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, closing himself off to the other man. “I think you called for the wrong type of person.”

“I said your time,” Andrea said before he took a moment to look over Cloud from head to toe and back again. Wearing his leather riding gear and tight, knitted shirt, he was actually more dressed up than Andrea this time around. The clothing didn’t leave much to the imagination though, and he regretted wearing it. “Not your body.”

“I’m not doing this with you.” Because he just couldn't. He was in no way mentally prepared for this.

Andrea eyed him, finally dropping his extended hand. “You’ve changed. When I first met you, you were scared of everyone and everything. Outside of the arena, at least.”

Cloud felt his chest tighten at the words, but he tried his best to deny it with, “Scared?”

“You were.”

“Well, back then, you treated me like a piece of meat. How was I supposed to act exactly?”

Andrea smiled at him before he set the second bottle down on the table near him, twisted off his own cap, and took a few heavy swallows. Cloud watched every one of them. He couldn’t help it. Something in his whacked-out brain wouldn’t let him look away.

Finally, Andrea said, “I treated you like you were beautiful. Which you were.”

Cloud huffed with a small smile. “Fine. A beautiful piece of meat.”

“I had no idea your face could do that,” Andrea said, his eyes falling to Cloud’s smiling lips.

The smile dropped away from one instant to the next. “Don’t flirt with me.”

“Old habits,” Andrea said with a half-hearted shrug. “I haven’t changed as much as you have.” 

As the room went quiet, Cloud could feel the heat pulsing from this man. He found his own body responding in turn and it pissed him off so fucking badly. Not because of Andrea, but at himself because, no matter what his body thought it wanted, he didn’t want this. Not again. Because, in the end, all he would ever be to this man was a piece of meat. They would never be equals. There was no getting around it. And Cloud didn’t have the time, patience, or hormone level to be someone’s booty call. 

But the man’s hungry look still drove Cloud’s hunger as it raced his pulse and pissed him off all the more. 

Finally, Cloud nonetheless admitted, “Neither have I.” And he hadn’t changed. Not really. He could still feel that uncertain, weak person inside himself. He was just colder now than when Andrea had met him the first time. And all the things that happened afterwards…

He’d just been through too fucking much, seen too much death, had killed so many people that it wrecked his waking moments more than he’d ever admit to anyone. So, yeah, he was a bit different, but not enough to pretend he was a different person all together.

Whatever Andrea had thought he’d meant by those words though, Andrea nonetheless closed the distance between them, putting his arms around him, caging him. And Cloud could have yanked himself away with utter ease. He could have torn this man apart for daring to touch him. He could have done a lot of things besides the one thing he did do.

Cloud stood there, staring up slightly at the man with wide-eyes and panting lips. 

Andrea frowned slightly, an odd expression on a man who was usually so sure. “You’re this unsure of me? After everything you’ve done?”

What Cloud and his group had done wasn’t exactly a mystery. While no one outside of their group could possibly know the whole story--not even Cloud really knew the whole story--the people of Edge had a general idea of what they’d done and tried to prevent. It was why they’d been allowed to live here after all the chaos and death. Granted, it hadn’t been an easy start. But after Cloud and Tifa had done their damnedest to prove themselves, they’d gradually been accepted.

“It’s not that.” How could Cloud even explain what was going on in his head without divulging something he didn’t even want to think about himself? “I’m just… not ready. I didn’t come here thinking we’d do this.”

“Not ready? I’m not going to eat you alive. Although I would like to taste certain parts of you.”

The words hardened Cloud’s dick. He really didn’t have any say in the matter. 

But it was perhaps his continued stiffness and anxious eyes that made Andrea really stop and frown more. Then his head shook slightly. “You…” Andrea started. “You have been with a man before, haven’t you?”

Color came to Cloud’s cheeks. He jerked out of the man’s grasp and started heading towards the door.

“Have you ever been with anyone, besides me?”

Cloud didn’t stop walking.

“You should have said something to me. Stealing cherries isn’t my thing.” Cloud heard his bare footsteps behind him. “Cloud! I didn’t know.”

Cloud’s hand was on the door handle. For some reason, it was impossible to turn. Cloud closed his eyes and tried to calm down his breathing, his rapid heart, his raging dick. “You didn’t take anything from me that night. Nothing I was willing to give, anyway. Your conscious if free, if you’re worried about that.” He shook his head slightly, his grip tightening on the metal. “But I can’t do this with you.”

Andrea stopped just a few steps behind him. “Cloud…”

Cloud turned his head to look at the persistent man, one he hadn’t seen since that night. “Why did you call me here if you didn’t have a job? You’re going to honestly tell me you didn’t call me here to fuck me?”

Andrea’s mouth opened, then closed, before the man managed, “It took me a long time to call you. And I wasn’t sure you’d even come.”

“It wasn’t like I knew whose house this was.”

“Well…” Andrea swallowed and looked away. To see the man at a loss for words…

It made Cloud turn around and press his back against the door, the backpack insulating him from the sun-warmed wood. “Andrea…” The man instantly turned his head at the sound of his name. It was the first time Cloud had ever said it. “Why did you call me here?”

“I… I just wanted…”

Cloud smiled slightly. “It’s not a trick question.”

Andrea pressed his lips together, looking down at the floor as if eye contact was too much for him. Finally, he looked back up. “I just wanted a chance.”

“A chance for what?”

“To see what could happen. I… I never forgot about you. Eventually, with everything you’ve done, it was impossible to forget about you.” He crossed his arms over his chest. It was a protective move that Cloud could understand. “I just want a chance.”

Cloud’s smile turned real. He couldn’t really help it. “You’re not going to try to date me or something, are you?”

Andrea’s smile matched his own and held a relief that made much of Cloud’s tension drop away. “Would that help?”

“No, it wouldn’t. But I’ll take that beer.”


	2. Chapter 2

Cloud followed the man back into the room, taking the beer when it was handed to him. Andrea sat down on the plush, pinstriped chair again, and gestured to the couch. Cloud sat down on the end closer to the door, reclining into it, twisted off the cap to his bottle, and took a few swallows. The stuff had a strong ale flavor and burned his throat going down. It definitely had a higher alcohol content than the crap he usually drank. But the alcohol content didn't matter much.

With everything done to his body by Hojo, he would have had to practically drown himself in the stuff to get drunk. He knew that little tidbit as fact since he’d tried to do just that after everything that had happened. Tifa’s sad eyes and the numerous trips to the bathroom, both to vomit and to piss up a storm, had stopped him from bothering a second attempt.

When Cloud looked back at Andrea, he realized the man was staring at his crotch. Again, his leather pants left little to the imagination and his hard-on still hadn’t deflated completely. It’d escaped his underwear and ran down his leg. It wasn’t exactly the most comfortable position for it but he wasn’t about to reach into his pants either to adjust himself. 

...Not that it'd mattered. Andrea had managed to zero in on it anyway. God, the man was fucking persistent. Cloud had to hold back a groan as he felt his dick begin to fill out again. Because, no matter what Cloud said or thought or wanted, this man still turned him on with a disturbing efficiency.

Maybe it was the memory of that night over a year ago that did it. Maybe it was Andrea himself. Whatever the reason, Cloud couldn’t help but want the man.

But instead of acting on those unwanted impulses, Cloud let his head fall back to the rim of the couch, looking up at the ceiling. “Could you do me a favor and just not look?”

“I doubt that’d help.” And then Andrea was off the chair, walking the half dozen steps over to him and dropping to his knees. He spread Cloud’s legs with his strong hands on his legs. 

Cloud had lifted his head to watch him do it all, now stiff again in more places than just his cock.

“I won’t fuck you. I won’t unless you ask me to. But let me ease the tension between us. Denial, it’s only going to draw this out.”

Cloud huffed. He was definitely familiar with denial. Denial and him were best friends and worst enemies. But giving into his desires, it’d never done much for him either. In fact, it’d only made everything worse. Him wanting things and the general public as a whole, the two things didn’t mix well.

“You just want to touch me,” Cloud said quietly as he tried to control his heart rate and breaths that wanted badly to become panting.

“Did I ever say I didn’t?” 

Andrea took the bottle from Cloud’s hand and put it on the side table. Then his hands slid up Cloud’s thighs. Cloud’s muscles trembled underneath them. The moment the left hand was over his cock, Cloud gripped the hand with the full intent of ripping it off. But then he really felt the sensation the grip caused, and his head fell back again, his eyes pinching closed. Andrea’s thumb caressed his cock at the pause. Cloud’s breaths became ragged, shaky as each one made him more aware of his own body.

“Let me,” Andrea said, his voice low, rough with his own hunger.

“God, I fucking hate you,” Cloud ground out when his hips bucked slightly.

“I seriously doubt that.”

And Andrea was right to doubt it. The last thing Cloud felt was hatred for him. Quite the opposite, really, unfortunately.

Then both of Andrea’s hands set to work unfastening and unzipping Cloud’s pants and then opened them. The cool, climate-controlled air hit Cloud's skin, making goosebumps. Or maybe it was just Andrea’s touch doing that. His underwear was urged down, and Cloud finally let his chin drop to this chest and opened his eyes because he had to see what the other man was doing.

Andrea’s thick fingers combed through his pubic hair, making his cock twitch under the confining leather. Then those careful fingers pulled it out and refused to let it go. The skin to skin contact felt way too good. Especially when Andrea gave it a testing stroke.

“Have you ever let someone touch you like this?”

“Only once,” Cloud breathed.

Andreas stared at him for a moment, as if trying to read Cloud’s mind. “I wish you would have said something that night. I wouldn’t have done that to you in a hallway of all places, if I’d known.” And then his hand stroked again, the full length of him, pulling down his foreskin with the stroke and finishing by pressing lightly at the base.

The overwhelming sensation washed over him. Cloud’s eyes fell shut, as his mouth opened to let out a shuddering breath tainted with a groan. He couldn’t believe he was letting this man do this to him after so much denial. “It didn’t have to be a religious event.”

“No. But it could have been more.”

“Like on a couch with your half-naked servants running around?”

“Yes, like that.” 

Cloud could hear the amused smile in the man’s voice. And then he felt something strong and wet caress the tip of his cock. 

“Of fuck,” was instantly out of Cloud's mouth, his eyes popping open to see Andrea licking him before sucking at it and drawing out any precum. Without thinking about it, his hands jumped up to the sides of Andrea’s head, gripping him, holding him in place, but not forcing him away. 

So, the man merely kept sucking him, licking him, teasing the slit. It was driving Cloud half out of his mind.

Too quickly, Cloud’s body demanded more. It left him breathless. And he forced his hands to ease off the pressure but didn’t remove them completely. Andrea began bobbing head up and down, taking in more of him with each. He kept going, right to the point that Cloud’s erection was at the back of his throat.

Cloud had no clue how he’d managed to not come yet. Every single caressing of his tongue and lips, every suck and even mild scraping of his teeth, had Cloud bucking his hips lightly and then more strongly as a minute and then two passed by. The man’s relentless rhythm was strong enough and fast enough to break him completely. 

“Oh fuck, oh fuck,” Cloud practically sobbed out as he reached his climax, his hands working the man down on his cock as much as Andrea worked him over. “I’m gonna come,” he hissed out in warning, but Andrea didn’t try to pull away at all. Instead, he only seemed to suck him harder.

Cloud couldn’t help his loud swears driven by his loud breaths that filled the room and surely drifted through the rest of the house. God only knew how many people were hearing him, a man who’d claimed he’d never let himself be a booty-call. Well, it wasn’t like he’d never lied before, especially to himself.

Seconds later, he found himself hissing as the mouth rubbed his oversensitive cock. Finally, Andrea pulled off of him, his own breaths heavy, his face flushed, his eyes wanting, Cloud noticed as he cracked open his eyes as his thumbs caressed the man’s cheeks. Their breaths slowed together as they watched one another.

“You didn’t come?” Again.

Andrea stroked his thumb along the base of his erection, smiling at him. “Denial has its own pleasure.”

“But you said…” Cloud huffed again. “You don’t live by your own words, do you?”

“Not when it comes to your pleasure. Or mine.”

Cloud’s brows raised for a moment. “Are you a masochist or something?”

“In certain ways, yes. But aren’t we all?”

Cloud closed his eyes again and let the couch swallow him as his body molded into it. “That’s a little too… philosophical. I can’t think that much right now.”

His eyes shifted back open as Andrea put his half-hard cock back inside his pants and closed them up. 

Then Andrea patted it. “There, all better.”

Cloud burst with a short-lived laugh.

Andrea leaned forward a bit, his hands coming to either side of Cloud’s hips. “And you can laugh too. I’m impressed.”

Cloud finally let go of the man’s head and ran his fingers through his own hair with a small shake of his head, exasperated. “You’re really an asshole, you know that?”

“I’ve been called worse,” Andrea purred before he kissed Cloud’s jaw, and Cloud found his hands cupping the man’s face again. He really wasn’t sure what to do with them. Andrea pulled back slightly.

After a moment, Cloud said weakly, “I’m really not that great, you know,” With the words, his heart rate picked back up and brought a flush to his cheeks and dampness elsewhere. It tore at him to say that out loud, something he’d always known as fact, even when he’d lied to himself the most. But considering everything, this man didn’t seem to understand that fact, or even notice it was there.

Andrea searched his face for a moment before he said, “We’re going to have to agree to disagree on that one.”

The words increased Cloud’s blush tenfold, he was sure, both because Cloud had said the words in the first place, but also because Andrea wasn't even going to humor his words. But maybe Andrea didn’t notice his blush because the man claimed Cloud’s mouth for the second time in his life, kissing him deeply, letting him taste himself.

The days and then weeks that followed brought Cloud to the man’s house again and again. They talked, laid out and watched a show or even just the sky in the man’s spacious backyard. And of course, Andrea jerked him off while kissing him or blew him every chance he could get. Andrea had an oral fixation or something. The man loved to use his mouth.

Eventually, Cloud let Andrea take him out to one of the clubs he owned. Andrea no longer took center stage. Instead, he kept the entertainment district going from the sidelines, long ago replacing Don Conero’s unscrupulous rein. There, he got Cloud all the drinks he could bear and mingled with the patrons when duty called. Other than that, they just sat back and watched the performances together, Andrea’s arm around him, holding him close. Admittedly, it was uncomfortable at first. Everyone looked at Cloud as if he was Andrea’s newest pet. Those looks either held adoration or unbridled jealousy and to those he glared right back. Fuck them.

And as it turned out, Andrea was definitely well versed at denying his own cock, maybe even more so than Cloud. Andrea never had Cloud touch him, never even hinted he wanted it. And when Cloud eventually did try, Andrea just pulled his hands away and went back to the task at hand, namely Cloud’s own erection.

Cloud didn’t know if the man was doing it solely because he was indeed a deeply seeded masochist, or if he was seeking forgiveness for that first time in that hallway--Cloud had already told him straight out there was nothing to be forgiven for--or if he was actually expecting Cloud to ask for more.

Lying together on Andrea’s bed, Cloud snoozed in the early morning light in just a loose pair of shorts he’d borrowed from Andrea’s expansive wardrobe. He’d come there after the kids had gone to school, telling Tifa to text him any jobs that came to the house phone.

And then, again, he felt Andrea’s hand on his semi-hard cock. 

His sleep disturbed, Cloud brushed away his hand, mumbling, “It’s not a damned play toy.” When the hand tried to creep back, Cloud flashed the man a half-assed glare. “Admit it, it’s the only thing you love about me.”

“I can love more than one thing, can’t I?” Andrea purred next to his ear before he kissed the edge of his jaw. All the while, his hand sneaked back over Cloud’s leg and to his groin.

“Andrea, seriously!” Cloud said, swatting the hand away, “Keep your fucking hands to yourself for once!” Then he eyed the man for a moment. “Is Andrea Rhodea even really your name? It sounds like a porn star’s name.”

“You think so?” Andrea said, grinning at him as he climbed over top of Cloud and sat on his groin. Cloud couldn’t help but try to grab the man’s erection he saw peeking out of his shorts. The man was hung like a fucking horse. Andrea again smacked his hand away and then leaned forward, putting his hands on either side of Cloud’s shoulders, looking Cloud dead in the face. “It’s Andrew. But that doesn’t have the same ring as Andrea Rhodea, does it?” He brushed his lips over Cloud’s. “Besides, Andrew was my father’s name. And I like to distance myself from that man as much as humanly possible.”

Cloud frowned at him, absentmindedly caressing Andrea’s muscular thighs. He already knew Andrea’s father was dead, but Andrea had never really talked about him beyond that. “Why?”

“My father… hated pretty much everything I did. And everything I was. And everything I wanted for my life. Even with all this shit around me that I own, he’d have still had something nasty to say about it. The man wanted me to be his clone.” He kissed a line to Cloud’s throat and then licked a line to his collarbone. “The only good thing I got from him was his business sense that he forced down my throat every day.”

“He didn’t like…what?”

“My interest in painting. I wanted to be a painter. God, he hated me even looking at a paintbrush. And of course, he hated my love for men. No chance for a family line can be found in asses, you know. He hated the clothes I wore.” Andrea huffed, the warm air nonetheless cooling the trail he was making towards Cloud’s navel. “You think I’m flamboyant now, you should have seen me in my teenage years. Half the reason I wore that crap though was just to piss him off. Some of my happiest moments were when he was pissed at me. I felt like I was actually doing something right.”

“He sounds like an asshole,” Cloud said as he shifted a hand to play with Andrea’s hair, the man’s mouth traveling farther and farther down Cloud’s body, making each breath grow heavier. 

Finally, Andrea nuzzled the erection tenting Cloud’s shorts, Andrea shifting to sit on Cloud’s knees. But before he could, Cloud sat up, pulled out his legs from underneath the other man and straddled him, grinding his erection against Andrea’s hard stomach. The friction it created made Cloud groan against the side of Andrea’s face. Under his ass, he felt Andrea’s thick cock pressing up against him, teasing him.

It was a moment of triumph, really. Cloud had only managed to get his legs around this man a handful of times. Andrea always held him back, found some way to skirt away, and in Cloud’s confusion, he always let him. But he was overly tired of it.

Skirting away though seemed the be the last thing on Andrea’s mind as the man growled, “Fuck,” next to Cloud’s ear, his muscular arms wrapping tightly around Cloud’s body, giving Cloud little wiggle room unless he wanted to fight for it.

Instead of fighting though, Cloud continued to grind shamelessly at the other man’s stomach and groin, quickly building a rhythm that had both men panting.

“Unless you want to get fucked, you better stop that,” Andrew said roughly, although he made no move to stop Cloud.

The words made Cloud painfully hard as he picked up his rhythm. “I want you to fuck me.”

That was all it took for Cloud to find himself tossed to the bed and turned over so that he was on his hands and knees. While he was abnormally strong, he still had a normal body weight, less than Andrea’s. It made positioning him relatively easy for someone who worked out every day. Andrea pushed a knee between his legs, urging them open, as he untied the string holding up Cloud’s shorts. Those were yanked down, as loose as they otherwise were.

Exposed, Cloud trembled under the cool air and anticipation of what was to come. His heavy breathing matched Andrea’s who had stilled behind him. Cloud turned his head, trying to see what the other man was doing, his expression. He could only see out of the corner of his eye which wasn’t really enough to judge.

Andrea caressed his ass cheeks slowly, eventually spreading him. He growled low in his throat before he pushed off the king sized bed, saying. “Don’t move.”

The man immediately went to the bed’s side table and pulled out a condom and lube. Cloud frowned slightly at the condom and had to wonder exactly how many men Andrea had slept with. They’d never really talked about it before. Cloud hadn’t really wanted to know. It wasn’t as if it was something he could change. Nor was he a jealous person.

Andrea noticed the look apparently. “I’m clean. I got tested years ago and haven’t had sex for as long. My last relationship… You were the exception to the rule I made for myself. But, if I don’t use one, I’m going to blow the second my dick touches your ass.”

The first words pacified Cloud a bit. With the final words, he burst out laughing.

Andrea grinned at him. “Glad you find that funny. We’ll be like two virgins, you and I.”

“But years?” Thinking back on the previous weeks, this man constantly all over him, Cloud couldn’t imagine Andrea abstaining for long.

“Like I said, you’re the exception,” Andrea said as he yanked down and dropped his shorts and then climbed back onto the bed. “Believe it or not, I can control myself.”

And, really, Andrea had been controlling himself. Cloud would have let him take his virginity weeks ago. But Andrea had held back for whatever reasons he had. Maybe one of those reasons had been the fact that even Andrea himself hadn’t been ready. It was a sobering thought for Cloud.

“If I’d just been looking for someone to screw, there were a heck of a lot easier targets than you. That’s… just not what I want.”

Cloud finally sat back on his heels as Andrea came to kneel behind him. The half-flagged erection behind him was admittedly distracting, but he still managed to ask, "Why haven’t you said these things to me before?”

“How would you have taken them before?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“Would you have believed me?”

“I really don’t know.”

Andrea sat back as well, putting distance between their torsos, his knees just brushing Cloud’s ass. “Do you still want to do this?”

Admittedly, Cloud’s erection had gone limp with the words. It was something he knew he could get back up with minimal effort, but what was happening between them suddenly seemed too real and not just a fling. Throughout all this time together, had Andrea truly been seeking a relationship with him from the start?

Of course, with hindsight, the answer was an obvious yes, but Cloud simply hadn’t seen their relationship that way. He’d expected Andrea to eventually grow bored with him and toss him aside for another. He hadn’t expected, hadn’t even really considered it could be more. It just hadn’t seemed possible.

“Cloud?”

Cloud tugged his limpness, urging blood to flow back in it, saying, “Yeah, I want to do this,” and then leaned forward again, putting his weight on one folded arm.That made his ass stick up in the air, but he was really beyond caring. Besides, it was obvious Andrea loved what he saw.

Andrea groaned at the display before him, Cloud jacking himself off clearly visible between his spread legs. Cloud heard the sound of the bottle being opened. Then he felt a couple of fingers circling his hole, pressing only slightly, before one finger pressed with more urgency. Andrea came up off his feet to kneel behind him again. 

As slick as it was, the probing finger entered him with minimal effort, and Cloud tensed up, expecting some kind of pain which admittedly never really came. The finger thrust in and out a few times before he felt a smack to his ass that stung a hell of a lot more than the finger. It made Cloud jerk his body as he gasped his surprise rather loudly.

Andrea half-laughed behind him. “Loosen up. Relax. I’m not going to tear you up.”

“God, you’re an asshole,” Cloud growled but couldn’t stop his own huff. He stroked himself with more vigor and willed himself to relax and open up for this man. Because he wanted to. So much.

“God, I love you,” Andrea said, just barely over a whisper. 

With Cloud beating his dick, he almost hadn’t heard the words. But he did and instantly stopped his stroking, lost in them and what they might mean beyond the obvious. Heck, even the obvious was… overwhelming to say the least.

At the sudden quietness, Andrea was quick to say, “Sorry, I didn’t mean--”

But Cloud interrupted with, “Do you?”

It took a couple of heartbeats for Andrea to say, “Of course, I do.”

Cloud held still for a moment, letting the words, all of this sink in, before he said back, “Then I guess we’ll be making love.”


End file.
